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Franklin and Freedom 

An Address by Joseph Fels to the 
^^Poor Richard" Club oi Philadel- 
phia, January 6th, 1910 -^ -m 



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UNTIL philosophers are kings, and the princes of this world 
have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness 
and wisdom meet in one, cities will never cease from ill — 
no, nor the human race as I believe — and then only will our state have 
a possibility of life, and see the light of day. — Vhto. 



Franklin aiid Freedom 

An Address by Joseph Fels to the 
"Poor Richard" Club of Philadel- 
phia, January 6th, 1910. ^ j^ 



The City of Philadelphia is indebted to an honored merchant, 
Justus C. Strawbridge, for a beautiful statue of her first citizen 
and adopted son, Benjamin Franklin. The statue is in the high- 
est degree pleasing, and itself appears well to match the encom- 
ium by Washington which, with dignified simplicity, graces the 
]>edestal : 

Venerated for benevolence. 
Admired for talents. 
Esteemed for patriotism, 
Beloved for philanthropy. 

He who knows Benjamin Franklin only from his extraor- 
dinary, varied and persistent services to his country, state and 
city; his observations and pioneer work in gathering secrets 
from Dame Nature; and the homely and quaint maxims of 
"Poor Richard," has not sounded the depths of his feelings; has 
not yet learned the whole worth of the man. There are three 
subjects which engaged Franklin's thoughts which, I am sure, 
he would emphasize, could he converse with us from his pedestal 
by the Post Office. His counsel might not be welcomed by the 
people of Philadelphia, but I am sure none could take offence, for 
his benevolence was innate. 



''His statue in Boston was placed," said his eulogist, "to 
receive, and I had almost said, to reciprocate the daily saluta- 
tions of all who pass." 

In such kindly spirit I wish to speak of three subjects which 
engaged Franklin's thoughts. They concern the questions of 
trade, peace and the tenure of land. 

A FREE TRADER 

Franklin opposed the doctrine known as "protection." 
sometimes defined as "public taxation for private purposes." He 
was not of that timid class known to-day as tariff reformers. He 
did not even believe in tariff for revenue. He believed that any 
governmental interference between buyer and seller was wrong 
and productive of evil. He was uncompromisingly a free trader. 
The importance of the subject will justify quotations at length. 

(From "The Internal State of America.") 
And when the government had been solicited to sup- 
port such schemes by encouragement in money or by impos- 
ing duties on importation of such goods, it has been gener- 
ally refused, on this principle, that if the country is ripe 
for the manufacture, it may be carried on by private persons 
to advantage; if not, it is folly to think of forcing nature. 

The governments in America do nothing 

to encourage such projects. The people by these means are 
not imposed on either by the merchant or mechanic. 

I make no comment further than this ; we have progressed 
since then, yet complaints of imposition to-day are widespread. 

In 1775, when the colonies were restive under the restric- 
tions imposed by England, Franklin suggested the following pro- 
posal : 

Whenever she (England) shall think fit to abolish her 
monopoly . . . and allow us a free commerce with 
all the rest of the world, we shall well nigh agree to give 
and pay into the sinking fund 100,000 pounds sterling per 
annum for the term of one hundred }ears. 

To counteract the proposed restraining acts of Parliament, 
Franklin moved in Congress, July 21st. 1775, as follows: 



^ . TTuMJJbzjrj^ 



That all custom houses in the colony shall be shut up 
and all oflficers of the same discharged from the execution 
of their several functions, and all the ports of the said col- 
onies are hereby declared to be henceforth open to the ships 
of every state in Europe that will admit our commerce and 
protect it 

Franklin's biographer, the lamented Albert H. Smyth, of 
our Central High School, said : 'Tranklin's freedom of trade 
was based on a natural right." Personally I am a free trader. I 
respect every man's right to buy or sell to the best advantaga, 
believing that ''mind your own business" is the best part of the 
Golden Rule. May I respectfully suggest to my fellow citizens 
that, if Franklin's theory be unsound, their settled judgment of 
Franklin's wisdom must be revised? The revision must include 
also in its disapproval the opinions of Washington, Jefferson, 
Madison, Patrick Henry and all the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence; for therein is an indictment of George HI "for 
cutting off our trade with all parts of the world." It must also 
question the wisdom of that provision of Magna Charta which de- 
clares: 

All merchants may safely and without molestation de- • 
part from England and come to England as well by land as« 
by water, to buy and to sell, free from all evil duties . . . 

It is interesting to note that the just and gentle founder 
of Pennsylvania, that ''holy experiment," did, for the general 
good, refuse a great financial temptation (entirely legal) for a 
monopoly of trade with the Indians. Penn has recorded his feel- 
ings that Pennsylvania had been given him to honor the Lord's 
name, and to serve his truth and people, that an example and 
standard might be set up to the nations ; therefore, 'T determined 
not to abuse his love, nor to act unworthy of his providence, and 
so defile what came to me clean." 

Although Franklin's opinions were radical, they were ex- 
pressed with so much moderation, kindness and persuasiveness 
that further quotations are tempting. In a letter to Peter Col- 
linson, he wrote : 



In time, perhaps mankind may be wise enough to let 
trade take its own course, find its own channels, and regulate 
its own proportions, etc. At present most of the edicts of 
princes, placaerts, laws and ordinances of kingdoms and 
states for the purpose prove political blunders; the advan- 
tages they produce not being general for the Commonwealth, 
but particular to private persons or bodies in the State who 
procure them, and at the expense of the rest of the people 

In 1784, in a letter to Vaughn, he wrote: 

I am sorry for the overturn you mention of those 
beneficial systems of commerce that would have been exemp- 
lar}- to mankind. The making England entirely a free port 
would have been the wisest step ever taken for its advan- 
tage. 

There are hosts of sincere protectionists who fear the ruin 
of their country if traders be allowed to fetch and carry without 
let or hindrance. To them T respectfully commend Franklin's 
words written in 1774: 

It were therefore to be wished that commerce were as 
free between all the nations of the world as it is between 
the several counties of England : so would all by mutual com- 
munication obtain more enjoyment. These counties do not 
ruin one another by trade ; neither would the nations. 

Cobden, whose mind, Smyth says, was fertilized by Franklin, 
held that the moral progress and elevation of a people depend 
first of all, upon a removal of carking care, and upon the ability 
to secure with reasonable labor, the loaf, the coat and the roof. 
It was clear to Franklin, as to Cobden, that free trade best pro- 
vided for the certainty of these conditions for his countrymen 
but his interest was broader than the colonies ; it embraced the 
world. In a letter to the Englishman, Hume, he writes : 

I have lately read with great pleasure the excellent es- 
say on the jealousy of commerce. I think it cannot but have 
a good effect in promoting a certain interest too little thoughi 
of by selfish man, and scarcely ever mentioned, so that we 
hardly have a name for it ; I mean the interest of humanity, 
or common good of mankind. But I hope, particularly from 
that essay, an abatement of the jealousy ... of the 
commerce of the colonies. 



This ''interest of humanity or common good of mankind" for 
which Franklin sought a name, shall we call it cosmopolitanism — 
a citizenship of the world? It is that for which saints have 
prayed, and philosophers have taught, and poets have sung. Yet 
with clear vision Franklin saw in the trader, however humble, 
however selfish or prosaic, yet unconsciously its missionary, a 
courier for civilization, a promoter of peace on earth and good 
will among nations. Instead of "setting the dogs upon him," he 
advised that the trader should be welcomed with open arms. 
"Many." said the prophet, "shall run to and fro, and knowledge 
shall be increased." It is the demand of the trader which re- 
moves barriers separating mankind ; witness the Atlantic cables 
the Suez Canal, the Simplon Tunnel, and the brave attempt at 
Panama, appalling in difficulty. Success to them all, workers 
together for good ! Well has Stephens said : "Trade is the 
Peacemaker of God, and in her service shall be brought to pass 
the saying that is written, 'Every valley shall be exalted, and 
every mountain and hill shall be made low ; the crooked shall be 
made straight, and the rough places plain ; and the glory of the 
Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.' " 

That Franklin's desire for the general good was not mere 
sentiment is shown by his refusal to patent several successful 
inventions. Disapproving privilege in others, he would not profit 
by it for himself. "I declined," said he in his Autobiography, 
"from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such oc- 
casions, viz., that as we enjoy great advantages from the in- 
ventions of others, we should be glad to serve others by any in- 
ventions of ours, and this we should do generously and nobly." 

And the last public paper by Franklin, within two months 
of his death, was a plea for the liberation of the blacks. 

WAR AND PEACE 

However tempting the subject may be, let us leave it to con- 
sider briefly Franklin's testimony against war. In 1783, after 
the return of peace, he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks as follows : 

I join with you most cordially in rejoicing at the re- 
turn of peace. I hope it will be lasting, and that mankind 
will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, 
have reason and sense enough to settle their differences 



withouf cutting throats ; for, in my opinion, there never was 

a good war or a bad peace. What vast additions to the 
conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have 
acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in 
works of public utility! What an extension of agriculture, 
even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered 
navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges aqueducts, new 
roads and other public works, edifices and improvements, 
rendering England a complete paradise, might have been ob- 
tained by spending those millions in doing good, which in 
the last war have been spent in doing mischief ; in bringing 
misery to thousands of families, and destroying the lives of 
so many thousands of working people, who might have per- 
formed the useful labor. 

''Never a good war or a bad peace !" — an amazing conclu- 
sion ! However much you or I may dififer with Franklin let us 
realize the breadth of his sympathies. Perhaps we, as a people, 
are mistaken in our alarms and preparations for war. Perhaps 
it may not be necessary or advisable to prepare the Big Stick and 
the Dreadnaught, Perhaps by a scrupulous respect for the rights 
of all men, white, black, brown or yellow, they may come to love 
us, and never dream of harming us ! So thought William Penn ; 
his ''holy experiment" was successful. So also thought Lycurgus 
the Spartan, — "for he did not fence the city with walls, but forti- 
fied the inhabitants with virtue, and so preserved the city for- 
ever." So also thought Ulysses S. Grant (alas! that his thought 
was too late). On his return from his voyage round the world, 
he said : 

Though I have been trained as a soldier, and partici- 
pated in many battles, there never was a time when in my 
opinion, some way could not be found of preventing the 
drawing of the sword. I look forward to an epoch when a 
great recognized committee of nations will settle internat- 
ional differences, instead of keeping large standing armies as 
they do in Europe. 

Before, therefore, we approve of another war, let us pause 
to think of the advice of Franklin; let us look beyond the pomp 
and circumstance of war; rather let us in imagination look upon 
devastated fields, upon bereaved households, upon broken moth- 
ers, sad eyed widows and helpless children. The glory is trans- 
ient; the grief is permanent. 

6 



THE LAND QUESTION. 

What were Franklin's thoughts upon the land question? 
—a question which, slowly here, but swiftly in England, is en- 
gaging political thought, and promising dramatic developments. 
The question was not in his day pressing, as the question of trade 
had been. The settlements on the seaboard were trifling; behind 
them lay a continent untouched. Franklin has, however, record- 
ed interesting observations. I quote from his "Internal State of 
America." 

We are sons of the earth and sea, and like Antaeus in 
the fable, in wrestling with a Hercules, we now and then re- 
ceive a fall; the touch of our parents communicates to us 
fresh strength and vigor to renew contests . . . The 
truth is that though there are in America few people so 
miserable as the poor of Europe, there are also very few that 
in Europe would be called rich. It is rather a general happy 
mediocrity that prevails. There are few great proprietors 
of the soil, and few tenants ; . . • very few rich 
enough to live idly on their incomes. 

We pride ourselves upon having progressed since that day. 
We have millionaires and multi-millionaires, also we have tramps 
and paupers. The strain of business life is increasing. Women 
and children are pressed into the ranks of labor ; the fireside and 
the playground are drafted for the machines. And on our streets 
at night I see sadder sights than these. We have progressed. 

Let us quote from Franklin's "Observations on the Increase 
of Mankind" : 



Land being thus plenty in America, and so cheap that 
a laboring man that understands husbandry can in a short 
time save money enough to purchase a piece of new land 
sufficient for a plantation whereon he may subsist a family, 
such are not afraid to marry, for if they even look far enough 
forward to consider how their children when grown up, are 
to be provided for, they see that more land is to be had at 
rates equally easy, etc., but, notwithstand- 
ing this increase, so vast is the territory of North America, 
that it will require many ages to settle it fully, and till it is 



fully settled, labor will never be cheap here, where no man 
continues long a laborer but gets a plantation of his own. 

Those hopeful words were written in 1751 by a man thought- 
ful, careful and restrained in the use of language. Franklin did 
not foresee. The lapse of time is far from having been ''many 
ages," yet to-day Labor is cheap — dirt cheap. That being whom 
the Psalmist declared to be a little lower than the angels, whose 
possibilities are boundless; that being whom Shakespeare apos- 
trophized so gloriously as ''in apprehension so Uke a God" — is a 
drug upon the market. When you built your new opera house, 
such beings fought for a chance to dig its cellars. To meet the 
needs of the poor, so vast is the problem that charity finds it 
necessary to be "organized" and statistical; and the quality of 
mercy has become strained. We read, and forget, that the bread 
line at the Bowery Mission has increased from 1500 to 2000 men 
— not vagabonds, says the Mission Superintendent, but men out 
of work. And newspaper accounts of suicides because of de- 
spondency are common. The vast territory which was to be a 
safeguard against poverty for ''many ages" is but sparsely set- 
tled. Yet stories of distress are commonplace, perennial and 
alas ! "tiresome." We dismiss them with a shrug. 

Last January Secretary Garfield submitted information of 
32,000 cases of alleged land frauds, mainly in States west of the 
Mississippi. The fact is ominous. Lowell saw that destruction 
lies that way, as destruction had waited for Rome, 

Where Idleness enforced saw idle lands. 
Leagues of unpeopled soil, the common earth. 
Walled round with paper against God and Man. 

In our own favored land monopoly is making its stealthy 
way. There are scores of individual and syndicate holdings 
ranging from 20,000 acres each to 20,000,000 acres each. Yet 
we wonder at the increase in the cost of living, and the "drift 
to the cities" ; and we cry, "Back to the land !" Let the slum 
dweller who would work in the Master's vineyard go back to the 
land if he will and if he can; he will find ample room unoccupied, 
but owned, "held for a rise." He must make terms with mono- 

8 



poly; and between the landlordism of the slums and the land- 
lordism of the fields he is between the Devil and the deep sea. 

A philosopher has told us that in Nature there are no punish- 
ments ; there are only consequences. In Nature, as in mathe- 
matics, two and two make four, yesterday, to-day and forever. 
But, when we consider the remedies which we apply to the con- 
sequences, the words of John Stuart Mill cannot be too often re- 
peated: "When the object is to raise the general condition of a 
people, small means do not merely produce small effects ; they 
produce no efiFects at all." The good intentions of our Good 
Government Clubs and our Municipal Leagues are acknowledged, 
but — "hell is paved with good intentions." Addressing them- 
selves to effects instead of causes, their labors are as those of 
Sisyphus. 

We complain that the men in the bread line sell their votes ; 
what else have they to sell? Neglecting equity, we defraud and 
disemploy them ; we do not attend to the public business ; the 
public business is neglected, and the consequences annoy us. 
"Drive thy business," says Poor Richard, ''or it will drive thee." 

Had similar conditions existed in Franklin's trnie, I think he 
would have studied them ; he would have been put upon inquiry ; 
his benevolence was of a kind that walks with open eyes, that 
traces efifect to cause, that seeks remedy, and is not satisfied with 
palliatives. But at that time the question was not urgent, and 
the public demands on Franklin's time were constant. Other- 
wise, I think he could not have failed to concur in the opinion 
expressed by Thomas Jefferson. Being in France thirty-four 
years afterward, and observant of the causes which soon after 
brought to pass the French Revolution, Jefferson wrote : 



Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands 
and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property 
have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The 
earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live 
on. 



THE SINGLE TAX. 

The last letter which I shall quote is most pleasing and most 
important; a fitting finale. It was written in 1768 from London 
to Du Pont de Nemours in France ; that Du Pont whose sons 
founded the powder works near Wilmington, Delaware : 

I received your obliging letter of the loth of \[a.\, with 
the most acceptable present of your "Physiocratie" 
There is such a freedom from local and national prejudices 
and partialities, so much benevolence to mankind in general, 
so much goodness mixt with the wisdom in the principles 
of your new philosophy, that I am perfectly charmed with 
them, and Avish I could have stayed in France for some time 
to have studied at your school, that I might by conversing 
with its founders have made myself quite a master of that 
philosophy ... I had^ before I went into your coun- 
try, seen some letters of yours to Dr. Templeman, that 
gave me a high opinion of the doctrines you are engaged in 
cultivating, and of your personal worth and abilities which 
made me greatly desirous of seeing you .... 

I am sorry to find that that wisdom which sees in tlie 
welfare of the parts the prosperity of the whole seems yet 
not to be known in this country. It is from your philosophy 
only that the maxims of a contrary and more happy conduct 
are to be drawn, which I therefore sincerely wish may grow 
and increase till it becomes the governing philosophy of the 
human species as it must certainly be that of superior beings 
in better worlds. 

Like most strong men, Beniamin Franklin was careful and 
moderate in his language, as we have seen. It is therefore worth 
while to examine doctrines of which such a man says, ^T am per- 
fectly charmed Avith them," and for which he hopes such growth 
and increase that they may become the governing philosophy 
of the human species. 

The physiocrats were philosophers and political economists 
who lived in France in the reign of Louis XVI. The most prom- 
inent members of the school were Turgot, the King's Minister 
of Finance, and Ouesnay, his favorite physician. Their doctrine 
was, in a word, the narrow one that government should do no 
more than to protect and preserve the rights of life and property, 

10 



and to administer justice. Governmental interference with pro- 
duction and exchange was not allowable. Trade was to be free, 
and the entire revenue, the ''impot unique," was to be taxed from 
the rent of land. This proposal of Quesnay to substitute one 
single tax upon ground rent for all others was praisctl by the elder 
Mirabeau "as a discovery equal in utility to the invention of writ- 
ing, or the substitution of the use of monev for barter." 

Do these words appear to be extravagant? That I regret, 
for extravagance is weakness. Yet they are as moderation itself 
when compared with those of one who is notably calm, philo- 
sophical and moderate. It was of this philosophy that Franklin 
wrote, "I am perfectly charmed with it:" it was of this philoso- 
phy that he expressed the hope that it might finally govern the 
whole race; it was this philosophy that he thought worthy of 
superior beings in better worlds. 

The philosophy which so charmed Franklin, and from which 
he hoped so much, was unhappily placed. It was making pro- 
gress, undoubted progress, when the storm of the French Revolu- 
tion broke ; it was overwhelmed, and became naught but a mem- 
ory to the students of history. It is a curious fact that this doc- 
trine should have been independently thought out and revived in 
after years by a young man who knew nothing of the great 
Frenchmen who preceded him ; a young man, moreover, who was 
born in Franklin's loved city of Philadelphia, a reader of Frank- 
lin's works, and an eager attendant upon lectures at the Franklin 
Institute; like Franklin, too, a printer, a philosopher and a free 
trader. He wrote what John Russell Young characterized as "a 
solemn message to mankind." The message was ''Progress and 
Poverty," couched in masterly English worthy of the subject. But 
as of old, so to-day, a prophet is not without honor, but in his 
own country and among his own kin. Lightly regarded in his 
native city and land, his revived doctrine of the "impot unique," 
the doctrine w^hich had so charmed Franklin, here known as the 
^'single tax," is, in the Antipodes, in Germany and in England 
marching apace. I think the time will come when Henry George's 
birthplace on Tenth Street will rival in attractive power our In- 
dependence Hall. 

11 



Benjamin Franklin once wrote of his gratification in the 
thought that his works were respectfully quoted by others. But 
I acknowledge more than a feeling of respect; I have had a keen 
])leasure in thus spreading further the pure and peaceable coun- 
sels of this printer, philosopher and statesman. 

When next I pass the statue by the Post Office I shall be 
mindful of the advice of Franklin's eulogist at Boston. I shall 
tip my hat, and shall almost expect ihe face of bronze to light with 
pleasure. 

In conclusion, if I have given but scant attention to a great 
subject, it is because my time is short, and because the explana- 
tion is in every library ; moreover, "a word to the wise is enough," 
as Poor Richard savs. 



/ 



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